Brands: First Impressions vs Now - Topic of the day 4/10/24
How has your opinions on specific brands changed with time? How and why? Is it because they made a directional change? Have you matured in terms of your own style?
20 Replies
It’s interesting how 2015 minimalist brands have shifted or stayed the same in 2024. Brands like Kitsune or APC have largely stayed the same whereas some brands like Our Legacy have evolved with similar DNA. Meanwhile Acne has fully evolved into a maximalist brand
i can't figure out where norse projects is
some of their stuff feels pretty contemporary and the other brands they carry at norse store are very tastefully curated
not to get sidetracked. my answer would be j. crew
2014: kinda crazy how this is the best clothing brand in the world....
2024: -
Viberg. There are still boots and shoes they’ve made that I would be interested in, but I low key despise them as a brand now. The direction of the brand for a long time has seemed to indicate they’re trying to capture a luxury audience and get bought out by someone like LVMH, but their aesthetics are 1) not refined enough for that and 2) seem to be regressing, not improving
me reading the mfa post about buying a bunch of shit from ALD and getting mocked for "spending a lot of money to look like you shopped at J Crew": Haha what an idiot
Me now: New ALD drop lets go
I like Norse projects as a brand but I wouldn’t consider them that fashionable anymore
no not at all
but i feel like they're trying a little
Undercover is one of those brands that I never got into but I’ve always thought was cool. Like that’s the brand story: they cool
CDGH+ in 2011: Wow this stuff is so cool and conceptual but entirely impenetrable in terms of styling in the real world.
CDGH+ in 2024: This stuff is so damn cool and there is so much that can be styled well. I've gotta get more from them
Biggest turnarounds for me have been J Crew and Polo RL. In 2014 I thought J Crew was the ideal mall brand, expensive but high quality, very trendy, and what I wanted my whole wardrobe to be. Now I want nothing to do with the brand, they have a few decent pieces these days but for the most party I find them awful
I was so confused about the Ralph Lauren diffusion lines that I thought for a long time that Polo was a cheaper diffusion line (like LRL), I owned 0 Polo up until 2021 and now it's probably the most common brand in my wardrobe
I'd still never buy it new but there's so much of it on the used market that it's great value, and lots of the vintage cuts are really good
New Balances I always thought were ugly and chunky, but then at some point I realized that ugly and chunky, if done right, can look really good
To me, A&F over the last few years went from being a meh mall brand for middle/high schoolers to being one of the trendiest mall brands
My opinion on Gustin, Thursday Boots, and Taylor Stitch went from "cool Americana workwear heritage brands" to "these brands are stuck on outdated trends and will never make cool stuff"
ok done writing my novel lol
vans in 2006 - "got my vans on but they look like sneakers 🎵 "
vans in 2010 - "i stg if i see one more checked slip on sneaker :digs: "
vans in 2017 - "i stg if i see one more stacked black vans authentic :hoff: "
vans in 2024 - "i don't really feel like wearing loafers today (grabs vans eras)"
while many of my shifts in brands were a matter of changing taste (brooks bros, PRL) or defining quality (j.crew, h&m), my enjoyment of vans came from realizing they fit a particular role within the rest of my wardrobe (low profile, plain white sneaker that wasn't asininely expensive) despite their intended audience and my perception of the brand
Uniqlo - provided the foundation for my basics but now it's too conservative for the growth I want
A&F - expensive as fuck to me but now that I'm at least working part time, it's replacing Uniqlo in terms of the basics bc it keeps up with what's trendy
Banana Republic - def got baited by FMF early on before I understood how brands have different niches. Sooo boring
H&M - their website seems more interesting those days but I def thought it was boring asf. I still think GAP is boring along those lines
Zara - I thought the storefront was so edgy but once people talked about Zara's niche I paid more attention to it and will continue to
Converse / Van - I really like the color schemes but holy fuck are they miserable to wear in reality
New Balances - overrated bc it was so hot with ALD --> hey I actually fw stuff heavy
Wolf vs Goat - cool ass tees/fabrics --> permanently meandering around and never making shit that is actually cool
DoD really been dropping some stinkers the last decade
Yo same until i was 26 or 27 I viewed it as the polo assn / burlington coat factory of ralphs lineup, and for a lot of the stuff I still do view it that way
But theres a few nuggets of gold
I’ve had a pair of black Vans Old Skools in my closet as long as I can remember. Vans is one of the few brands that has stayed ever present in my life
Visvim 2014: Man this is nice and I cant afford it at all
Visvim 2024: Man this is nice and I REALLY cant afford it at all
Wrangler I've gone from thinking of them as Levis poor cousin to being the more focused, interesting one
Corridor used to have such a stranglehold on me when I first got into clothes (~3-4 years ago), but I’ve really soured on them now. Inconsistent sizing, bad QC, and most pieces they put out are just pretty boring. Their most interesting pieces are priced wildly high.
i've worn converse for literal years but i've only ever owned low-tops. i do still like my converse, but i'm noticing as i start to learn to actually skateboard that i either need to move into cons or give vans a more solid check. they're comfy when you're just walkin around but they are extremely thin. i do love the bold colors, though. need a black pair and a purple pair at this point
same boat, they miss the mark on most pieces
they are close, but not hitting the mark
Plenty of brands that I loved from my pre-MFA days I now look at and cringe. Ecco, AG (jeans), Robert Graham are the big ones. I did a rapid turnaround on J. Crew in the space of a few months (so fun, good quality --> meh). I guess I've always been drawn to Ralph Lauren, but always thought it was too expensive. Then I discovered eBay.
I've also done a 180 on several brands I thought were too "young" for me, like Converse.
Growing up, I knew of Birkenstocks as something my dad wore every day in the least cool way. Now I have a pair of Arizonas and will likely jump on some Bostons at some point